My daughter has had a 2 1/2 year headache,believe it or not. It varies in intensity but never goes away. Doctors are at a loss about it. She's had every sort of test imaginable,she's had head scans,seen specialists and was also hospitalized.
She's 23 years old and her life is being ruined. She regularly sees a neurologist,a psychiatrist,and has a cardiologist too {she's not very lucky..is on medication for both rapid heart beat and irregular heart beat}. Also has panic attacks,vertigo, Reynoud's,and gluten ataxia. And bi-polar 4, {there is a bi-polar #4}.
She has been on the ONLY drug {and had tried everything}, butalbitol, which is known to cause rebound headaches {!!!!!}, and now the detox for that is dangerous due to her panic attacks and the heart condition.
We're in the middle of hashing out options and info regarding detox but nonthing sounds safe enough....the pain level of the migraine just shoots up to unbearable levels without the butalbitol....and we've never been told there's any real substitute during detox !
Had I know all this to start with, maybe we could have taken steps sooner to get her off {somehow} of the butalbitol before she ended up taking 2 to 4 tabs a day. Butalbitol is bad news to take more than one dose 3 times a week I found out, let alone daily double doses.
But at the time, her neurologist had no other option if he wanted to help her with pain. Of course....I didn't know back then about possible alternatives like biofeedback and other non-drug options. Acupuncture is another possibility but she hates needles.

I have also suffered with a constant headache for about five years. Nothing seems to help. Like your daughter, its always there, but the intensity seems to vary as the week goes on.
I would personally suggest accupuncture, I too don't like needles but you don't feel a thing if its done right.
Currently I am on topamax (50 mg) and as of right now, it's not doing much, but its only been 2 1/2 weeks.

Before medication, I averaged 16-18 migraines a month, with preventative meds, I average 3-6 a month. I was on tompax (which put me 3-4 migraines a month) until my insurance stopped covering it. I take tegratol right now, 400mg every day. Part of the things are to consider is her triggers...if you can find her triggers, you can lessen some frequency. For example, if I have more than 40oz caffine, I trigger a migraine. My gyn, whom also is a migraine sufferer, gave me a list of foods, drinks, common things that can trigger migraines. I've played off the list, and I am able to control some of them now. Also, I get different types of migraines. I know a migraine is a migraine and really hurts bad, but the sources of where it comes from can be different. For instance, back of neck and lower head for main trigger points during a migraine (where that knife we think is), usually is stress related. Behind the eyes, forehead is usually allergies. Also, look for presigns. I also get something classified as "neorological migraines." When I am going to have my neorological migraines, I will have half of my face (eye and one part of mouth) twitching and 3 fingers will go numb on one hand or both hands. If you can figure out the cause, you can treat the cause, not the symptom. Right now, I've had an allergy migraine since Sunday. So I went and picked up some antibiotics and the famous said yet again, butabital from my doctor, that is after I tried frova and vicodin. I would suggest to look for pre signs of a migraine, get a list of known things to trigger migraines and play off of that list, and chart everything down. Write down what eating, drinking anything going in your body. Sometimes, it can be something as minor as milk. A thing someone would never think of. Record what you took and dose of it tooo. Keept that diary and take it to the neurologist. it can help find the source, and finding the source will help treat and prevent...best of luck for her. i feel for her.

You mentioned your daughter's gluten allergy, does she stay pretty much 100% away from gluten? I actually just realized I might have the allergy as well
I would think that there really is something your daughter can do to treat the real cause and not just cover the symptoms.

Before medication, I averaged 16-18 migraines a month, with preventative meds, I average 3-6 a month. I was on tompax (which put me 3-4 migraines a month) until my insurance stopped covering it. I take tegratol right now, 400mg every day. Part of the things are to consider is her triggers...if you can find her triggers, you can lessen some frequency. For example, if I have more than 40oz caffine, I trigger a migraine. My gyn, whom also is a migraine sufferer, gave me a list of foods, drinks, common things that can trigger migraines. I've played off the list, and I am able to control some of them now. Also, I get different types of migraines. I know a migraine is a migraine and really hurts bad, but the sources of where it comes from can be different. For instance, back of neck and lower head for main trigger points during a migraine (where that knife we think is), usually is stress related. Behind the eyes, forehead is usually allergies. Also, look for presigns. I also get something classified as "neorological migraines." When I am going to have my neorological migraines, I will have half of my face (eye and one part of mouth) twitching and 3 fingers will go numb on one hand or both hands. If you can figure out the cause, you can treat the cause, not the symptom. Right now, I've had an allergy migraine since Sunday. So I went and picked up some antibiotics and the famous said yet again, butabital from my doctor, that is after I tried frova and vicodin. I would suggest to look for pre signs of a migraine, get a list of known things to trigger migraines and play off of that list, and chart everything down. Write down what eating, drinking anything going in your body. Sometimes, it can be something as minor as milk. A thing someone would never think of. Record what you took and dose of it tooo. Keept that diary and take it to the neurologist. it can help find the source, and finding the source will help treat and prevent...best of luck for her. i feel for her.

Thank you for the reply. You have certainly been through a lot. My daughter's headache has no triggers to look for because it never goes away. It only varies in intensity,for the past 2 and half years. I recently realized that the Butalbitol she has to take to get a tiny bit of relief is a rebound medication....and I'm totally freaked out by that. It means she'd need to detox from the Butalbitol,
it's very complicated because she's delicate due to panic attacks and a heart condition too. Her headache pain was so insane her doctor let her have a lot of Butalbitol, it was the only drug that ever worked in any small way. So,now the headache could literally be caused by the medication and nothing else,for all we know. But she'd need to try to go off the Butalbitol safely { because withdrawl is dangerous}, to even find out. I don't understand why life is like this. I really don't.

I have also suffered with a constant headache for about five years. Nothing seems to help. Like your daughter, its always there, but the intensity seems to vary as the week goes on.
I would personally suggest accupuncture, I too don't like needles but you don't feel a thing if its done right.
Currently I am on topamax (50 mg) and as of right now, it's not doing much, but its only been 2 1/2 weeks.

Hope this helps...

Thank you for the reply. I'm really sorry to hear yours is also a non-stop headache. I know the depression it causes. My daughter goes through horrible depression and sees a psychiatrist too. I know that investigating as much as possible, and talking to various doctors helps to understand options, and also I'd tell anyone to be cautious about any medication that might cause rebound headaches. I've realized her medication might be part of the problem....but it was the only med that helped !

Hi, I am new to this forum, suffered constant migraine and headaches for past 8 years, finally got relief through a heart drug called "Inderal" after years of narcotics, pills potions and people poking and proding...... someone mentioned hand and finger numbness, I have had the same, I was placed into a MRI machine while I had a migraine (I don't recomend this) but it found a compromised nerve at C7 cevical area (Lower neck) I have a stuffed neck basically but the doctor syas it should not cuase migraines, Inderal has only been used for Migraines here for passed few years in Australia, hope it keeps helping and hope I can help someone else.